It was a weapon designed and built by Sith Lord Darth Vader. The Darth Vader Lightsaber was the last and final lightsaber that was made for personal use. It gets its power from a crimson-synth crystal with the previous one serving as a model. Sith Lord was the last apprentice and Commander-in-chief of the military of the Galactic Empire. He did not have any plans to build this one but had to because he lost the last one in the time of a skirmish on Cabarria.

It was used to finish off numerous Jedi and rebels during the Galactic Civil War. Darth Vader used this lightsaber against Obi-Wan Kenobi in many of the duels and later on, against his son Luke Skywalker in which he cut off his right hand.

Features

This lightsaber has a function owing to which it can be controlled manually and it can be changed during the fights. It has a black-colored handgrip with a black-cell chamber, length adjustment knobs, and two dual-phase focusing crystals. These features helped Darth Vader to constantly upgrade and fine-tune his lightsaber for maximum stability and blade power. Over the years, Vader implemented several modifications to his lightsaber which changed the outer look of the lightsaber as well. He also made several changes to the rounded emitter shroud which looked like his second Jedi weapon. Apart from using it in the confrontations with the Jedi, he also wielded it against other opponents.

History

Initially, Darth Vader continued using his second lightsaber which he created as Anakin Skywalker but he had to create another one when this one got snatched by Obi-Wan Kenobi. And thus he continued to use this lightsaber for the rest of his life and killed Obi-Wan Kenobi. He also cut the right hand of his son, Luke Skywalker. At the time of his final duel with Luke in the Battle of Endor, Luke could not control his anger and thereby attacked Vader aggressively. As a result of that, he cut off Vader’s right hand.

Behind the scenes

If we go by history, the first Sith lightsaber was designed for none other than Darth Vader. But, no one had ever planned to make his weapon different from that of other lightsabers as were depicted. George Lucas described some of the weapons as jewel-studded cylinders which helped them to come up with Darth Vader’s lightsaber. So, now can you guess what was used to make the hilt carried by David Prowse? Well, it was curated from a flash attachment of a Briitish 3-cell Microflash which looked like that of 1940s press camera. The grip was ridged which was made of hard plastic ‘T’ tracks that are being used for sliding doors. During The Return of Jedi, somehow the original prop got displaced and they hurriedly came up with a 3-cell Graflex Flash tube that looked similar to Luke’s first-ever lightsaber. Some people believe it to be a stunt saber that was utilized in the first two releases because it is very difficult to get your hands on MPP Microflash. During that time, the lightsaber effect was provided by the spinning dowel which was one of the components of the blade as well.

However, these effects could not put up a smile on Lucas’ face. Back then everyone agreed on the fact to come up with multicolored lightsabers which had different colors in the blade. This made the differentiation process all the way easier and consequently, Vader was allowed a red blade. However, the process of lightsaber production took a considerable turn for the next two mivies.